This invention relates in general to brushes used for grooming animals and more particularly to brushes used for grooming pets and stock animals, especially horses.
It is important that animals be washed and groomed. In addition to the improvement in an animal""s appearance such care provides, it also helps to maintain the animal""s general health. Frequent or periodic washing and grooming removes insect pests. It removes tangled and matted hair which can harbor such pests and which can get caught on an object, causing the hair or even flesh to be torn. It reduces odor which attracts a variety of dangerous and annoying insect pests. It also enables the animal""s skin and coat to be examined for indications of damage which need treatment and potentially damaging conditions can be readily found, allowing preventive measures to be taken.
While brushes of various types have long been used for grooming animals, until now the application of water to wash the animal had to be done separately, usually by pouring from a bucket or squirting with a hose. This added time and effort to the task of washing and grooming and by the time a groomer was able to use a brush, the water had already drained away from the area being groomed. Usually, in an attempt to be more efficient, the entire animal was initially wetted down, causing it to become cold and uncomfortable, particularly during cold periods, longer than necessary, since only a smaller area of the animal could be washed at a time. Also, when more water was needed, it had to be applied by someone else, by using a hose in another hand, or by stopping and applying water.
The grooming brush of this invention allows water to be applied through the brush where and when needed to wash the animal. The invention includes a hose coupling on the brush to allow it to be quickly connected to a quick connect/disconnect hose adapter and contains a plurality of conduits, each with a plurality of openings defined along the conduits to provide water under pressure so that the brush can spray water onto the area being washed.
Other advantages and attributes of this invention will be readily discernable upon a reading of the text hereinafter.
An object of this invention is to provide a washing and grooming brush which includes a conduit network on a bristle face of the brush which communicates with a supply of cleansing or rinsing effluent under pressure, and dispenses the effluent generally uniformly over a wide area of the bristle face through distributed outlet holes.
A further object of this invention is to provide a brush as described in the preceding paragraph with additional features for facilitating control of brush movement during operation, the features including an adjustable strap securing a user""s hand to a top control face and liquid drain-off channels which also knurl the control face for better gripping.
A further object of this invention is to provide a brush as described in the preceding paragraph with additional features for facilitating control of brush movement during operation, the features including a finger wall with finger stops, as described below, projecting from the control face.
A further object of this invention is to provide a brush as described in the preceding paragraphs with additional features for facilitating control of brush movement during operation, the features including a palm heel catch to help prevent the user""s hand from slipping off of the brush while pulling the brush backward.
A further object of this invention is to provide a brush as described in the preceding paragraphs with additional features for facilitating control of brush movement during operation, the features including a preferred length allowing a user""s fingertips to overlap the front of the brush.
A further object of this invention is to provide a brush as described in the preceding paragraphs which can be quickly connected or disconnected to an effluent supply hose, e.g. a water hose.
An additional object of this invention is to provide a brush described in the preceding paragraphs which includes an easily operated valve for controlling the rate of flow of effluent into the brush.
These objects, and other objects expressed or implied in this document, are accomplished by